Ramblings about cycling, politics, and life.

ramblings/random thoughts

I’ve been involved in Bitcoin for a very long time. These days, when normies and all those social media pumper, overnight crypto experts hear that, they think “oh, like back when it was $3000.” No. Like back when it was $2.50. Back when you’d tell normies about it and they’d (correctly) identify it as a scam or totally unworkable, for all the same reasons it’s still a scam and totally unworkable: the inherent insecurity of money that only exists on a hard drive, the recourse-less nature of transactions, the lack of regulations, the inability to scale over time, and the fact that the biggest real-world users are drug cartels, hackers, gun runners, and child traffickers. I was involved back before MTGox (the original Coinbase) just up and disappeared with tens of millions of dollars of people’s real money and fake money (Bitcoin). Oh… you haven’t heard about that? The pumpers didn’t tell you? You might want to look that up.

Anywho…

Before you make a run on Coinbase to remove all your real money, finish reading this post I put so much effort into – then run.

So back in the earlier days of Bitcoin, anyone with enthusiast/gamer level computer hardware could easily “mine” several Bitcoin a week (even a day, if you go far enough back). Mining was how you originally got Bitcoin, not by giving up your hard earned US Dollars. I was part of a mining pool – a large group of folks that all worked as a collective and then distributed the Bitcoin to members. This helped members get more regular payouts than mining on their own. None of that is actually important though. What is important is that I found myself sitting on quite a few Bitcoin that were rising in price (to a whopping ~$20, still nearly a 10x increase), yet I had no way to turn them into the real dollars they were supposedly worth. I didn’t trust MTGox (and look at how that turned out) and other scam exchanges. Plus, even if you trusted those Chinese teenagers running these rigged “exchanges” in their mom’s basements, selling your Bitcoin to someone for USD wasn’t the end of your hassle. You still had to deal with giving boat loads of personal information to ultra-sketchy “banks” and wire transaction outfits to finally, after many fees and much time, get USD in your hand, or so you hoped. I opted for the easier, but equally sketchy, route of simply sending some guy that had a website that looked like it was designed in 1991 large chunks of my Bitcoin stash, and he’d eventually mail me Visa gift cards full of real dollars. Totally legit. But I do still like that guy. Never once screwed me. Hopefully he’s a fake millionaire now.

Fast forward many years and Bitcoin had its first major run – up to $1000. This caught the attention of normies and the media. The media coverage caught my attention, because I remembered that buried on an old hard drive somewhere was my wallet file that still contained several bitcoin (Visa guy didn’t accept less than 10 at a time, so I had residual when I stopped mining). I checked around the ‘net and the cashing out issues remained the same. After getting proven right about MTGox, I certainly wasn’t going the exchange route. Sketchy Visa guy was long gone, probably dead from a cocaine and hooker fueled rager to celebrate his new billionaire status. The only option seemed to be to spend it. Since the early days when only illicit sites like Silk Road accepted direct Bitcoin payment, it seemed a few more had caught on to the fad, most notably Overstock.com. This isn’t terribly surprising as Patrick Byrne has always been a goofy dude that loves to be anti-mainstream, so being the first major retailer to accept Bitcoin seemed natural for him.

SIDEBAR FOR NORMIES: Do not be confused. Retailers that “accept” Bitcoin don’t really accept Bitcoin. They use payment systems powered by Coinbase or another exchange which immediately converts Bitcoin back to their native, real currency. They never handle a cent of Bitcoin. This isn’t acceptance. This isn’t a new paradigm. This is a front.

So what did I do? With Bitcoin already losing 20% of its value just since I started my research on how to spend it, I went on an Overstock.com shopping spree… and what a glorious one it was. Thanks Patrick. I still had some fractional Bitcoin left over after, which I once again decided to hold onto, just in case.

Bitcoin got decimated after that and traded at a few hundred dollars for years afterward. Everyone but the die-hard pumpers forgot it existed.

Now, here it is again, shooting towards the sky. Again, it caught the attention of the normies and the media – thus also catching my attention. I still had some left. Surely the cashing out situation had improved. Once again I began the internet research to see how I get real dollars with Bitcoin in 2017. Guess what? Not much has changed.

Coinbase is semi-legitimized these days and requires no where near the personal information of an actual online broker/exchange (yay fake trading scam!!), so I did sign up for an account. But with MTGox still in the back of my mind, I decided to see what options existed beyond scam exchanges. Looks like good old Patty is still taking Bitcoin… oh… and so is Newegg! I love Newegg! Alright, time for another shopping spree! This will be a case study in Bitcoin’s real-world effectiveness and usefulness in 2017. Where to begin?

I need to find my wallet.dat file. No problem, I know exactly where I kept that.

Wallet resurrected. Now I need to download the original Bitcoin client program. Easy download and… wait, what? 8 days to download the entire 9 years worth of blockchain??? I don’t have 8 days to wait!

Frantically scour the internet looking for a solution. Turns out a million and one other Bitcoin wallet programs have been created since I was last involved. Some of them let you spend money without downloading the entire blockchain. Cool. That’s what I need. They’re “less secure”. Whatever, this whole thing is insecure.

This is a problem. Do some more research… OHHHH, now it makes sense. Even though I have this super awesome, currency of the future that’s going to make the dollar obsolete, because the wallet that contains it was made with program A, I can’t actually get any of this awesome currency of the future out of the wallet with programs B-Z. Think about that for a second and ponder that level of real-world practicality. You have dollars in a wallet that’s made by Ralph Lauren (because you’re fancy). Those dollars can only be spent if pulled from that exact wallet or another wallet made only by Ralph Lauren. If Ralph Lauren ever discontinues that exact model of wallet, you’re up shit creek and your money might as well not exist. Very practical. Very usable.

So what to do?

I guess I need to call Comcast and get a lot more bandwidth, then I just use the original Bitcoin Core program and download the entire blockchain onto my laptop so I can access my wallet.

18 hours later I have an error and a full laptop hard drive. Apparently the full blockchain is over 200GB of data.

Time to start over, on the desktop with a completely empty 320GB harddrive.

32 more hours later I have the entire blockchain downloaded and the ability to FINALLY (a total of three days later) spend my currency of the future that’s going to make the dollar obsolete. SHOPPING SPREE TIME!! I want a camera, let’s look at Newegg.

Newegg doesn’t accept Bitcoin for marketplace transactions, only for items sold by Newegg itself. Bummer. Newegg only sells computer hardware and the only computer hardware I need is more RAM, but DDR4 is laughably overpriced these days. No worries, Patty has me covered.

Ok, so now I just send this… wait a minute. “Transaction fee”? I do remember those. Like 0.000001 bitcoin. Used to be fractions of a penny. It’s a fee that ensures your transaction gets processed by the network in a timely manner. But why is the Core program recommending a transaction fee equivalent to $55 on my $141 order? That’s absurd.

Back to the internet I go.

Turns out the Bitcoin network doesn’t scale well (who could have seen that coming? *eyeroll*) and transaction fees and processing times have gone through the roof. Even if I spend the $55, my estimated transaction approval time is 60 minutes. I have only 15 minutes to get Patty his money – same story on Newegg and any other site that accepts Bitcoin. This 15 minute window is in place because Bitcoin’s value is so comically unstable. In 20 minutes the vendor could be getting stiffed if the value drops or you could be getting stiffed if the value rises. But alas, back to the problem… spending $55 to get a transaction approved in an hour that MUST be approved in 15 minutes. This makes actually spending Bitcoin at these sites an impossibility. Do I chance it anyway with the recommended transaction fee? Maybe I get lucky and it gets filled early? If it doesn’t and Patty cancels my order, I’ve lost that $55 and still have no products.

I don’t want to risk $55. I guess I’ll just send it through with the default 0.000001 transaction fee and hope I get lottery-win lucky.

Not a chance. Of course I missed the 15 minute window and now have no new goodies. But 15 hours later the transaction still isn’t confirmed. I now have $141 floating out in the ether for days, weeks, months, only Bitcoin god knows how long before it finally (if it ever does) make its way to Patty so that he can then issue me a refund (maybe), probably less the recommended transaction fee on his end and I’m out $55 with nothing to show for it… or maybe the default transaction fee and I wait another six months to get my currency of the future that’s going to replace the dollar back.

So here’s the fun part. The part that the normies, who are so demanding and impatient, are really going to love. While my $141 floats through network space, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t call Bitcoin customer service. I can’t start a live chat. I can’t write them an email. They don’t exist. I can’t file a dispute. I can’t put a stop payment on it. All transactions are final. You have zero recourse. That money is gone forever – or until Patty receives it in six months and refunds it to me six months after that. Who knows what it’ll be worth then (likely nothing at all).

This is only $141 of fake “currency” I never really had – because I never actually spent a penny to acquire my Bitcoin. Multiply this by many times and imagine you acquired it with your hard earned US dollars. What do you do?

You want to get rich quick and “invest” real money in these scam exchanges and this scam product? You think this hilariously unusable and unstable “currency” is viable to replace the dollar or even be useful as a payment system for anything but child sex slaves? Just image this same scenario with larger amounts of your own money. Go do some real research and talk to people with no vested interest in Bitcoin before spending a penny on this scam.

This public frenzy pump and dump strategy is as old as markets themselves. These parabolic chart patterns have repeated tens of thousands of times with the same end results. Bitcoin isn’t practical. It isn’t the currency of the future. It’s a totally unworkable joke and these parabolic price rises are nothing but a classic pump and dump.

You know what the currency of the future is? Plastic – credit cards. They’re portable, fast, easily tracked, full of recourse options, secure, sustainable, offer cool rewards points, they’re accepted nearly everywhere, and you don’t need to invest a week of internet research and jumping through hoops to spend your money.

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I don’t have any skin in the climate change debate. Being someone who cares about reason and holding informed opinions, I have no problem admitting that I possess neither adequate information nor the scientific knowledge to form an opinion on climate change that’s even slightly intelligent. I wish more people took this approach on a broad range of topics, but I wish for a lot of things that’ll never happen.

My lack of opinion doesn’t preclude me from stating observations about the climate change debate, rather than climate change itself. In fact, it might even make me one of the better people to do it because I’m essentially an objective third-party. So here is what I’ve observed.

Like I said, I have no skin in this game, so I’m saying this as an impartial observer (so don’t leave comments calling me a climate change denier)… get real. We’ve had natural disasters since the dawn of time. The American West has a wild-fire season EVERY year and has had one for as long as trees have existed on the continent. The Gulf area and East Coast have a hurricane season EVERY YEAR, and they’ve had far worse ones in the past. Tornado Ally is called Tornado Ally for a reason. These disasters are routine and predictable. I understand the desire to bring attention to climate change, but you do your movement no service by blindly blaming “climate change!!!” for every scary event from mass shootings to Hillary rallies. No one is buying it. You claim to be all about scientific process and facts, but keep throwing out this accusation with absolutely no corroborating evidence. Get your shit together or you’ll continue to sound as dumb and ill-informed as the deniers you hate so much.

Also, just to head off the inevitable retorts to this post which will go something like, “yea but they’re blaming it on climate change because XYZ event/season/happening is the ‘worst on record,'” I’m not any more impressed by that “evidence”. “Worst on record” in 100-200 years of records out of tens of billions of years of history is a sample size smaller than Trump’s hands and hardly powerful enough to matter statistically.

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Much has changed in a year, including my desire to write, ease of flow of my writing, and the amount of free time I have to write. The amount of time that’s passed since a substantial post should be evidence enough of all that. I suppose a desire to write is actually always there, somewhere, but the difference between “I should probably write something” and meaningful content flowing freely to the e-paper is, well, the difference between a post actually getting written or me finding something else to do. Plus, there’s that whole issue of most of my writing previously taking place at work and now no longer having my own office. In fact, I still have a saved draft for what was supposed to be a play by play and analysis of how “#shutitdown” was quickly and effectively changed to “#blacklivematter” in order to stifle an uprising and flip it on its head into a way to further divide the populace.

That draft never made it past the title. This would seem to be a more fitting time than any to actually finish it, but then that would distract me from less important things, like this directionless rambling and lengthy reminiscing on what’s occurred while I’ve been MIA from the blogosphere for the past year. Anyway, I think most people have figured out the “black lives matter” farce on their own at this point. Except the liberals. They’re just getting worse. I like to follow people and pages on social media to keep a pulse on different groups, even though I’m not actually friends with most of these people. I follow the young, Christian couples married at 19 years old, people my age that failed to start and think they’re still in high school, doomsday prepping gun nuts, grads of good schools and bad slaving their lives away (some in real careers, some at Starbucks or equivalent) to pay back their student loans, social justice warriors, kids fresh out of college that think they know everything, military dependapotomouses, police apologists, and, my new favorite, 2016 liberals. I need to come up with a more catchy name for them. I’m open to suggestions. In spite of the lack of a catchy or meme-able name, you’ll still know them when you see them. They’re the people who talk about “safe spaces” (in a totally serious, non-mocking way). They voted for Bernie, but don’t think he’s anti-gun enough. They think whites are racist and ruining the world just by existing (yet, ironically, they’re almost all white themselves). They’re new-age feminists that think everything is rape – including guys saying “hello” to women they pass on the street and the simple existence of a male sex, that’s rape too. They’re the ones that can turn anything into a race issue and scream “RACIST!” at anyone that disagrees with them. Those people. You know the type I’m talking about. Mostly college age. Mostly jobless. Mostly clueless. Saving the planet by putting Caucasians down at every opportunity. Sorry if any of that triggers someone. I should have put a trigger warning. Those a big thing these days too. Anyway, so yeah, I follow some of those people too – just to keep tabs on how crazy they’re getting.

How crazy are they getting? Pretty fucking crazy. The latest litter, fresh out of college (or still in), seems to be trying to one-up the fools before them. Grammar is now racist. Grammar. This was one of many items I’ve been able to check off my bucket list in the past year. I was hoping I’d live to see the day that something as objective, non-political, mundane, and harmless as grammar could successfully be labeled as racist. Life didn’t disappoint and we got there with freightening rapidity. This has resulted in the need for some adjustment though. I used to self-identify as “liberal”. This is no longer accurate or advisable (lest people think I get my entire worldview from Vice and/or Huffington Post). In the past year, the term “liberal” died. “Liberal” has ceased to mean “progressive” and now has become synonymous with being what is, for all practical purposes, a neo-con that loves gays and abortion and hates guns and white people. That’s not me. My IQ isn’t low enough for that kind of lack of independent thinking. So henceforth, my use of the term “liberal” will be in the same pejorative sense that conservatives use it.

Speaking of worldviews and delusional people, we’ve had some tragic, but amazingly landmark events in just the past few months. I’ve written in the past about the need Americans have for even the most complex of issues to be boiled down into black and white simplicity with easily remembered and repeated rhetoric. Of course, when you over-simplify complexity and substitute catchy rhetoric for critical thinking, what you end up with is usually a completely inaccurate representation of reality. But Americans have never been known to let facts and logic get in the way of their opinions. Subsequently, Americans of all political leanings have an obsession with fabricated narratives: “Islam is the religion of peace”, “mass shooters are crazy white people”, “gays aren’t criminals”, “only guns allow for mass killings”, “mass shootings only happen in America because we don’t have enough gun control”, “blacks are always victims”, etc. These narratives are then paraded around as facts and used to justify worldviews, political actions, etc. Within the past year, these narratives and more have been completely shattered. A gay, Muslim guy shot up a night club. Liberals were beside themselves and when the gay and Muslim came out, the story was swept under the rug as quickly as possible. Then a “black lives matter” activist decided he’d had enough and started gunning down police officers. Conservatives didn’t know how to react – call him a criminal thug because he’s black or cheer for him using the Second Amendment in exactly the way they always interpret it. I could see their heads exploding as I watched them try to make sense of it. In both cases, liberals didn’t waste one second before blaming the crimes on guns and demanding more gun control. Dems in Washington even staged an election season pandering fest “sit in” in congress to demand more gun control (then immediately voted down the proposed measures… but I digress). “This wouldn’t happen without ‘assault weapons’!!!” the liberals cried. “Yes it would,” conservatives retorted, “someone could just drive a truck into a crowd and kill just as many people.” “Impossible! That would never happen. You’re an ammosexual living in a fantasy world!” the liberals fired back. Then, whether by cosmic comedy, fate acting as some sick movie director acting perfectly on cue, or an unbelievably timed coincidence, someone drove a truck into a crowd and killed 80+ people. Conservatives seemed to almost celebrate. Liberals were completely silent. Life went on, no beats missed, for the rest of us. I wasn’t surprised. The small number of other people with brains weren’t surprised. It was as unsurprising as a population finally deciding to start shooting cops as retribution for cops shooting them… but alas that’s another issue and this post is already getting long-winded.

I don’t want this to be all politics and world events though. Yet, in spite of my efforts to make a non-political post here and there, this blog always seem to sway back towards politics and economics (they are both in the main header, after all). Maybe because those things interest me and get me heated enough to take the time to write on them. Maybe because I feel there are so few voices of logic and reason out there talking about either. Maybe because that’s all I’m capable of writing about on a consistent basis. Hopefully it’s not that last reason. I originally wanted this blog to be about cycling adventures and industry events (like my venting about shit road disc brakes and how much Specialized sucks). That never really materialized because I figured no one but me cares about what I do on my bike, plus BikeSnobNYC already has that market cornered (though he’s losing his funny these days). I very recently (like, really really recently, while typing the previous sentence) thought about expanding this blog to discuss operations management and poor management induced workplace issues – maybe I still will. For awhile I’ve thought about making a blog written from my dog’s perspective – maybe I still will. But first, back to what I originally wanted: a blog about outdoor adventures. Hopefully my move to Colorado provides for and facilitates the writing of stories and ramblings interesting enough to write about, maybe they’ll even be interesting enough to read too. Since I can’t keep this blog on topic, I made another one: here. Don’t be too disappointed that there’s currently nothing but a header and the default sample post from WordPress. That blog will hopefully, someday when I’m feeling it, chronicle the adventures and misadventures of my fiancé and I, plus be a place for me to vent and/or share words of wisdom about outdoor life. Of course, I don’t have any time or desire to do that right now though. I wasted it all writing this post.

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It’s been entertaining, frustrating, disheartening, and at times disgusting to watch the responses to and analysis of this recent rash of shootings. I first got to watch people on the left jerk off to the Planned Parenthood shooting because it fit their narrative of extremist, right-wing gun owners as the “real threat” to America. Their elation was almost tangible – “We were right! We were right!”. Now, only a few days later, I’m watching people on the right jerk off just the same to the San Bernardino shooting because it is (so far) looking like it will fit their agenda of radical, evil Muslims attacking us on our home soil – “We were right! We were right!”

Whether you’re an anti-gun nut or an anti-Muslim nut, let it be known – you’re a fucking nut. You’re politicizing tragedies to push an agenda, all while accusing and condemning the other side for doing the same thing. You’re celebrating dead people because you see it as vindication of your beliefs.

“Oh that evil NRA is always using these events to fear monger more people into buying guns!” Yeah? You’re using the same event to paint all gun owners as evil people and fear monger your sheep into supporting more gun control.

“Oh those damn liberals are always using these events to take MY RIGHTS!!” Yeah? You’re using the same event to call for more discriminatory, xenophobic laws that take away other people’s rights.

The only real threat to America is people that will stop at nothing to force their illogical, emotion filled agendas on the country, including displays of gross hypocrisy. Both sides claiming their agendas stem from a love of rights and freedoms… just as long as those rights and freedoms happen to be the ones they want for themselves. Both sides blasting the opposing side for use of hyperbole and rhetoric, all while using their own to blast the other side. Neither side wanting to let a tragedy be a wasted opportunity to push their own breed of totalitarianism and self-centered policy.

So congratulations, we’ve finally done the impossible and found common ground between the self-identified “left” and “right”. You’re both a bunch of empathy-less fuck sticks that get excited over dead people if you feel their deaths somehow prove your narrative right.

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And just like that, after nearly half a year hiatus, I’m back. This Ebola epidemic… no, wait, that was last year. This Syrian refugee epidemic… I mean… crisis… has finally forced me back to the keyboard.

I find it funny. Not the crisis, of course, but the very American, American reactions to the crisis. Remember when Ebola was going to kill us all?

Pepperidge Farm remembers

People were so sure that the handling of those Ebola victims was a life or death crossroads for America. I saw calls for revolution and assassinations. But a year later, here we all still stand. Well, much like last year when we needed to revolt against our evil government (lead by the Kenyan Satan himself) because King Obummer was trying to kill us all by helping those who were helping stop the spread of Ebola, the low-information sheeple of America have once again worked themselves up into a tizzy over issues they’re poorly informed on and lack historical perspective for. So let’s start unraveling the absurd rhetoric…

“We don’t have the room.”

The United States has been taking in refugees for as long as the United States has existed, and even before. Even the pilgrims were religious refugees. The US Refugee Resettlement program has existed since 1948. Annual refugee intakes average over 50,000, getting as high as 207,000 in 1980. In fact, we took in 70,000 refugees just last year… AND the year before. Where were all the naysayers and doomsdayers for the past 68 years – or even last year? Most likely they were (and still are) completely oblivious to the existence of this program.

“My broke-ass state can’t afford it.”

Well then it’s a damn good thing the federal government funds this program.

“They’re dangerous.”/”It’s too risky”

These two are basically the same and seem to be the most common. When faced with this statement, the best course of action is to ask the simple question: why? The answers usually go like this…

“Because they’re Muslims”

Putting aside all the absurd and xenophobic notions implicit in this question, there are over two million Muslims already living in the US. If you think all Muslims are terrorists and you want to keep them out, I hate to break it to you, but you’ve already missed the boat.

“Look what happened in Paris!”

An attack perpetrated by EU citizens, the majority of whom were actually French nationals. Maybe it’s Europeans that should be banned from moving to the US. Next!

“What if there are ISIS members hiding amongst them?”

This one is a good way to spot a really out-of-touch person that thinks we live in some kind of bubble or fortress. Unfortunately, they’re partly right: ISIS could be hiding terrorist plants in the refugee pool. The part these people are missing is that ISIS could also be hiding terrorist plants on any normal airline flight entering this country, either coming here temporarily or moving here permanently – you know, like how every other terrorist that perpetrated every other major attack got here. We don’t live in a fortress or high security enclosure. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world come and go to this country daily, as they please, with only a passport. Any security measures that would stop someone from normally traveling to this country will also have them getting caught out when vetting these refugees. Anyone capable of getting through the refugee vetting process because of lack of terrorist history or intel would also be capable of securing a passport and visiting and/or moving here unhindered. If ISIS wants in, they can get in without pretending to be refugees. In all likelihood, they’re already here – the FBI even agrees. There’s absolutely no reason or need for ISIS or any other terrorist group to go through the hassle and risk of trying to sneak operatives in through a highly scrutinized group of refugees. If anything, a group of vetted refugees is safer than any random group of people getting off an international flight.

“I don’t know man, it just seems dangerous.”

Your odds of dying in a terrorist attack are 1 in 20 million. Your odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 11 million. Your odds of being killed by flesh-eating bacteria are 1 in 1 million. Your odds of being killed by a cop are 1 in 363,000. Your odds of being murdered are 1 in 18,000. Go worry about stuff that matters.

This is my absolute favorite, by far. It’s my favorite because of the people it always comes from. They’re the same people that, one whole week ago, were railing against any and every social program under the sun. Now suddenly these Trump supporter, poor person haters have become socialist philanthropists. We need to “take care of our own”. These “our own” happen to include disabled people trying to find work. The exact same people that billions of your tax dollars were supposed to go to help, but instead were fraudulently funneled to Lockheed-Martin and other defense contractors by BOTH the Obama and Bush administrations – a scandal that broke the same week as the Paris attacks. How many people do I see raging out of control about this fraud, wasted tax dollars, “can’t afford it”, etc. and threatening to storm the steps of the White House? Zero. Show me something you’ve actually done or even come out in favor of to support our own poor or homeless, or get out of here with this hypocritical bullshit.

“None of that matters, this event is unprecedented.”

Unfortunately, all events are unprecedented to the average American with a fifteen minute memory. This event is not only NOT unprecedented, it’s almost deja vu. After WWII, the same type of clueless people made the exact same arguments against taking in Jewish refugees – “OMG, what if there’s Nazis hiding with them!”

So that’s it, myths debunked with just a tiny bit of critical thinking and facts – things sorely lacking in US public discourse. See you at the next pivotal moment of crisis that will surely destroy us all if we do not immediately revolt against our communist, fascist, Kenyan government.